Month: May 2025

Modal (cloud infrastructure platform with one of its three major offices in Stockholm) is acquiring Stockholm-based Twirl (data orchestration). Blog posts by Twirl and Modal.

Leap, by Swedish startup Encore, has launched and its a AI developer agent for software developers. More info in the launch blog post. It is not only a great prototyping tool (like many of the tools like Lovable are being used to a large extent today), but Leap offers developers the ability to deploy production-ready to their own Google Cloud Platform or Amazon Web Services.

Yes, Alliance VC is an investor in Encore so I’m biased, but it is exciting when good people are launching something that can be very useful to a lot of people.

Swedish AI legaltech firm Legora has raised a $80 million on $675 million valuation Series B round from Iconiq Growth and General Catalyst.

I had an interesting conversation about building and investing in startups with Espen A. Poulsen and his Venture Capital in Scandinavia. Some of the things we talked about (taken from Espen’s episode description).

• The biggest takeaways from building startups—and how they apply to venture capital
• Why top talent should still choose startups as a career path, even in a tough macroeconomic climate
• How being an operator shapes the way he evaluates founders and companies
• What makes an ideal early-stage team in terms of skills and background
• Key differences between the startup ecosystems across the Nordic countries
• How angel investing varies between Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark
• How to think about and structure your cap table—and the pros and cons of each.
• Why acting quickly is one of the most powerful (free) tools a founder can use
• What do founders worry about too much in the early stages of their journey?

Or listen at Spotify.

Good listen to understand A16Z and their view of the market, which is one reason behind the rise of the megafunds.

Good interview with Josh Kopelman, co-founder and partner at First Round Capital. Really like his take on the venture arrogance score, i.e. how much of total valuation of startups in a period does a multi-billion dollar venture fund need to capture in order to return 4x gross.

Norwegian-U.S. startup, and Alliance VC portfolio company, Sanity has announced its $85 million Series C and the launch of the content operating system to replace traditional content management systems.

It is one of the larger Nordic rounds this year, and has another Nordic connection in that it was led by Bullhound Capital

Over the last few years the stock market has been driven by the large technology companies in the Magnificent 7. Investors who didn’t hold these stocks have lagged the market, which has been a real challenge especially for value investors.

It’s worth remembering, and something I didn’t mention it in my post on Warren Buffett stepping down as CEO, that Berkshire Hathaway has held a significant position in Apple since 2016. At its peak, Berkshire’s Apple stake was worth about $181 billion. While Berkshire has sold shares since then, the position still stands at around $75 billion today.

Buffett steeped in the Benjamin Graham school of value investing (see The Intelligent Investor) had already evolved by the 1970s into investing in high-quality businesses like Coca-Cola, American Express, and others. Famously, he stayed away from technology companies for decades, considering them outside his circle of competence.

When Berkshire began acquiring Apple shares, the company wasn’t valued highly as it is today. According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple met the criteria of a price-to-earnings ratio below 15, strong confidence in growing earnings over the next five years, and reasonable expectations of steady sales growth.

Today, Apple trades at a P/E of nearly 32, with annual revenue growth of just a few percentage points over the past three years and largely flat earnings. It’s not surprising, then, that Buffett has been selling down his position rather than adding to it.

That Buffett chose Apple and not, for example, Tesla or Nvidia does show that he stayed true to his core principles even when investing in a Magnificent 7 company. Valuation remained critical and Apple’s capital allocation (with dividends and aggressive share buybacks) was likely a key factor. Apple’s exceptionally high customer retention, especially for the iPhone, was probably a strong indicator of franchise strength.

Had Buffett, together with Charlie Munger, not first evolved toward investing in great businesses, and later extended that approach to include technology companies like Apple, Warren Buffett’s track record and legacy would look very different today.

At 95 years old, Warren Buffett announced at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting that he will step down as CEO at the end of the year.

It will be some big shoes for CEO-elect Greg Abel to fill, as Warren Buffett is widely considered to be the greatest investor alive with Berkshire Hathaway’s stock having gained 5,502,284% since 1964 (or 19.9 % per year).

Warren Buffett and his investment results are both inspiring and a testament to the need to adapt to the times while keeping one’s core principles.

From running a hedge fund that invested in net-nets, special situations and deep value companies in the late 1950’s and 1960’s. Berkshire Hathaway itself was an unplanned acquisition after a failed buyout offer by the largest shareholder led to Buffett buying out most other shareholders.

After folding his hedge fund in the late 1960’s and teaming up with the late Charlie Munger he changed investment style captured in his quote “It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price”.

Which lead to holdings in companies like Coca-Cola and American Express and many other leading firms.

His success, and status as one of the richest men in the world, led him to in 2006 pledge to give away 99 % of his wealth to charity and in 2010 to co-found the Giving Pledge where billionaires pledge to give away at least half of their wealth during their lifetime or in their wills.

Buffett’s investment success and legendary letters to shareholders gave him a pristine brand among investors and businesspeople in general, which could be seen during the financial crisis in 2008 when getting an investment from Buffett would restore trust in any financial institution (and Berkshire Hathaway made sure to get paid for that).

There are plenty of books about Warren Buffett including the The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life, Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist and Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders (the letters can be found on berkshirehathaway.com).

Buffett is maybe the best example of what happens when capital is compounded at a high rate over a very long time. His stepping down as CEO will truly be the end of an era.